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Its that time of year again: Why schools ban peanuts/peanut butter.....EDIT

Banning a food may come as a shock to some parents. Msybe they have never heard of a peanut allergy before . Or maybe they were not aware of the rising cases of this allergy. Well im here to clear some things up! I have been living with this allergy all my life . I almost lost my life at age two when my uncle gave me a bite of his Snickers Bar . Growing up I only knew of one other person having this allergy. I was a freak! lol Peanut allergies are one of the most deadly allergies. If ingested it can cause airways to close up in a matter of seconds. The person suffocates to death. You can have other reactions without comsuming peanuts which include but is not limited to hives and trouble breathing and or asthma attack. Peanut allergies are on the rise. They really started to rise about 10 yrs ago. When I started subbing I was shocked to find peanut free classrooms and peanut free tables ! Even with these measures I, as an adult, still came into contact with peanuts on a number of occasions! I could have come in contact with door handles, railings, faucets, pencil sharpeners and so on. I had one student accidentally spit in my eye....that was not fun! He obviously had pb because my eye was swollen shut! So you have to understand why schools take these measures. THEY dont want the liability! Schools have many bans/rules for the safety of the children. Rules /laws are just a part of life .Teaching children to respect rules and authority is very important! Teaching them to respect others is too!

EDIT: I have to add that I didn't see any schools with bans on peanuts for the whole entire school. I have however worked at many schools with peanut free lunch tables and some classes with specific bans. There has always been more than one child with a peanut allergy per school. And that was about 6 years ago. I have to imagine if there is a complete ban for the whole school there must be a high number of kids with the peanut allergy. I also want to add that I'm not supporting an all out ban. Personally if my baby ends up with a peanut allergy I will most likely home school until he is older. Like I said before...its the SCHOOLS/DISTRICT that make this decision. Rules suck. Laws suck. But its life

Ironically this year my daughter's class has a child with a peanut allergy and a child on a special high protein diet who consumes a lot of peanut butter to meet their health needs. I just got home from parent orientation, and couldn't believe they put those two in the same class. Typically at our school the classroom will be peanut free, and we have peanut free lunch tables in the cafeteria. Anyone can sit at the peanut free table as long as their lunch is appropriate.

Our schools here are 100% peanut free, so are any family places that are in the public. As of gymnastics/danc classes/camps/daycares/indoor sports places/indoor playgrounds and the list goes on and on.

I have never met anyone IRL who has ever complained about the ban being in effect.

DD last year had 7 kids in her class alone with high nut allergies. There were only 24 students roughly in her kinder class.

And a total of 47 kids throughout k-5 with severe nut allergies.

3 yrs ago there were none in the entire school, and the ban was still in place. Its safer that way.

My kids take wow butter to school. Its peanut free pb, and it looks, smaells and tatses just like the real stuff. Their lunches just need to be marked with the wow butter sticker and that is it. Problem solved.

Wow, nice attitude. So your basically saying I am so selfish that I would not ban something that will kill someone in the next year. Even though the ban ONLY applies at school. You can still eat all the peanuts you want elsewhere. You are what is wrong in the world. And to Susannah, think your kids can live a short time with there cherished peanut butter?

Our school is entirely peanut and tree nut free for one child. No snacks are allowed on any buses and no homemade items are allowed at school. Even individually wrapped items (candy bars, etc) that are made in a non-nut free factory are banned, including at Halloween, Valentine's, Christmas, etc. I don't have a problem sending something nut free for the allergic child, but I don't think every kid should have to give it up just because of one child. (They are not allowed to eat treats from those days at school or on the bus anyway, they have to wait til they are home.)

It is truly annoying because peanuts and tree nuts ARE allowed in the home of the child with the allergy--his other siblings are allowed to have them at home, but his family expects the school and other community events to be entirely nut free or they make a stink.

Quoting wonderwomanT08:

Most schools I worked at had more than one child with a peanut allergy. I've never heard of a whole school being peanut free...just classrooms. They had peanut free tables in the lunch room. Do you know of a school.that is peanut free for one student?

Quoting ditsyjo:

I totally understand a classroom ban if there is a child with an allergy but the whole school... That would be like me demanding a school wide ban of anything with possible sulfate because my daughter is allergic. It is still over kill

Our school doesn't have a ban on any foods at all, non of the classrooms do either. We do not have any kids with peanut or tree nut allergies, yes I know this for a fact. The pto makes it a point to know because we are constantly giving the kids goodies and we wouldn't want to give peanuts or tree nuts in those goodies if there was a child with an allergy. However, the other elementary in our county is completely nut free.

i had a neighbor who's child almost died 6 times within one school year because of cross contamination issues. 6 TIMES. and yes, he ate at a nut free table and made sure to wash his hands multiple times a day and to never eat anything that was given to him by anyone other than his mother. can you imagine having to see your child that sick over and over and over again? they finally found a peanut free school, he choiced out and started attending and he has never had another incident in the past 4 years.

people keep throwing it out there how not that many children actually die from this, but countless children get very, very sick and are near death because of this issue and honestly who would ever want to risk a child's life over a stupid pb&j? i love our districts stance on it. if a child has a serious life threatening allergy of ANY kind they make sure that item is removed from the school. i think its a great way to support all the children's needs.

and btw, sun butter tastes a million times better than peanut butter anyway lol. i love that stuff :)

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